Wednesday, November 30, 2016

G'day USA

Cranking over the 100K on the hit counter was a milestone. But keeping my eye on the meter showed it raising at a great rate of knots.As reported on my past post of August 3, I noted there were a great number of hits coming from Russia. There is a general consensus that there are good and bad guys out there, just watch James Bond or Rambo movies where the Ruskis (bad guys) match up against the US (good guys).The hit meter for some reason has gone haywire with hits from the USA. For this weeks counter it show 872 USA and 271 for Australia. Maybe the CIA or FBI or whatever they are called this week are onto it. But then again it could be just a bunch of modellers. Whatever it is guys, I hope you enjoy the rebuilding of South Coast Rail here. If you delve back to older posts you can see how it has evolved from a HO layout to the now On30 layout in the making.Having said the above I welcome any Russian modellers, the translating feature might make it easier to understand. It would be interesting to see if it can translate Australian slang into other meanings.

Back to Bega

Having now allocated location names to the individual towns I am concentrating on Bega so that there is a place for trains to go to.

Above photo shows where the former terminus of Candelo has been laid flat. Part of the rockface wall has been placed onto the back wall temporarily rather than bin it. Having been painted way back in 1999, the rear wall is now overdue for another coat to freshen it all up. The can of paint is ready to go and is on standby waiting for some one to apply it.

The pile of HO track and points are bundled near the window. These will be eventually sold off to provide funds for future expansion. It is a very different feeling to pull apart an old layout to build a new one, there is so much stuff to move around and get rid of. Very different than building a new layout from scratch.

I know it has been said many times about using pineboard (Homasote USA?)for baseboards but having used it previously on another section and that it proved stable for fifteen years I am again using it on the new portion of the layout. The piece in the above photo came from an old bedroom cupboard and has been patiently waiting in the shed for its callup. The dodgy bit on the right hand side was cut off and then using some old leftover paint it was covered all over for protection from moisture. It is planned to run some MDF vertically along the baseboard facing to freshen it all up.

Looking from the other direction the board is temporarily supported to see how the new width will work. I have decided to leave in the former base of the lower town of Bodalla to form a shelf that can be accessed from the front when the facing goes on.

The former town of Candelo has now been flattened and repainted. All that needs to be done now is to fill in the former turntable pit.

The matching piece of baseboard has been cut and put into place. The crack visible is not earthquake caused but will be duly patched over shortly. Now with the boards in place I couldn't resist the urge to dry run the track layout for Bega. The passenger station will be located on the right and the goods shed on the left hand side. This allows the road access to the goods shed. I have incorporated a gentle curve to the tracks in the station area. It could have easily been straight but to my eye a gentle curve looks better.

Looking in the other direction an NA is in the loop with a six car coal train and two passenger cars are at the station. When trying to set out a layout it is easier to visualise how it will all look and fit together when the items are placed on the board. Compared with a plan on paper, this works so much better. This applied to the track as well and I have many template paper points downloaded from the Peco website. This then accurately shows how much room they will take up.

At the far end of Bega will be some loco facilities. This track comes off the station loop. At the far end of board can be seen some of the former SCR scenery. I have decided to leave it in place and then run the new track through it. This will save me plenty of time in not having to do the scenery again at the back of the layout room.This is where SCR is up to at the moment.